the following review contains excitement joy and other emotions which may be too
intense for some audiophiles viewer discretion is advised we're reviewing
the audio lab 6000a play today so hit that like button and subscribe and let's do this
the audiolab 6000a play is a stereo integrated amplifier that churns out 50 watts per channel
into 8 ohms and 75 watts into four this class a b amp is just full of goodies with analog
digital and wireless connectivity options it has a built-in moving magnet phono pre-amp as well as
a pair of preamp outs for use with a separate amplifier or subwoofer now what makes the play
unique among integrated amplifiers is that if you want to add a separate third-party amplifier
down the road you can effectively turn the play into a dedicated preamp by activating its preamp
operational mode this completely disconnects the power amplifier from the signal chain
and the play has a pair of coaxial and optical digital inputs which are tied to the built-in
saber 32 dac you can stream music with an ethernet connection or wirelessly and speaking
of wireless tech you can stream using bluetooth or with services like spotify title amazon music
kobas and more through the dts playfy app which is supported by both apple and android devices
and it enables the play to be part of a a whole home audio setup but if you need more detailed
specs than this please check out our links in the description below now getting up and running
is pretty straightforward we connected a lot of loudspeakers to this amp ranging from affordable
to cost no object for example the 6000a play worked well with our monitor audio bronze 100s on
up to the brand new psb synchrony t600 towers at 8 grand but our favorite pairings included
our klipsch heritage loudspeakers both the heresy and forte fours as well as the heco
aurora 700 dine audio evoke 20 the texas made high moon speakers we just reviewed
the sonos fiber luminous twos and a new pair of open baffle loudspeakers that will be revealed
in a later review in terms of sources we use two different turntables with the audio lab the new
project debut pro and my trusty audio technica lp 140 which is fitted with the new ordophon 2m black
beethoven edition i also connected the audio lab to our sony tv using an optical cable allowing the
play to be the centerpiece of a 2.1 home theater i i loved this setup i used our aurelik s50 pro plus
to test the playstack further but i ultimately ended up relying very heavily on the dts play-fi
app on my iphone streaming directly to the audio lab the sound quality of the audio lab
when listening to streaming music either wired or wirelessly was so good that the source didn't
really matter so about the audio labs sound i had zero expectations going into this review
because to be honest i knew next to nothing about audio lab happily i can say that the 6000a play
is insanely impressive this is an incredibly capable amplifier while it may only have 50
watts of power at its disposal the control it has over every loudspeaker we connected to it
i would have swore this amp was way way more powerful the audio lab more so than maybe any
other amp we've reviewed this year has been able to slot into the signal chain and make every
speaker sound its absolute best without fail this is an incredibly neutral and resolute amplifier
though it isn't boring like the neutrality of the m33 it has punch and presence that
keeps the delivery and and just things engaging without altering instruments or vocal timbres
starting with the bass the 6000 a's control over the speaker's woofers is impressive bass is very
well dampened controlled firm and textural in a lot of ways the base performance of this smallish
integrated reminded me a lot of my old mark levinson number 432 and 433 amplifiers in that the
base is rich organic and full of detail with depth that always just feels right if you're a fan of
rock music especially bands like tool you should definitely put the audio lab on your list you will
be shocked at how much detail and definition this little amp has down low when playing the
hard stuff oh and the play's low bass chops are on full display at virtually all volumes in terms of
mid-range again similar to my old leveson amps the audio lab is neutral but with a hint of body there
isn't a sudden leanness as you transition from the bass performance up into the mid-range and
as a result instruments and artists retain a truer sense of scale not to mention dimension because
like with the bass the audio lab's mid-range is very detailed i love this amp it just nails in
flexion i love listening to music through this amp it just gets in there and resolves the most subtle
cues with ease case in point when listening to i want you from savage garden a song i have listened
to a thousand times i could quite literally count the vocal stems that were layered one
on top of the next throughout the chorus i heard five distinct stems when listening to this track
and when i reached out to darren to confirm if i was correct or at least close he replied you're
absolutely correct i'm not sure i've been able to do that with any other amplifier as for the audio
lab's high frequency performance it's great this may be one of the play's best attributes it isn't
the most extended or forward making it a great fit for a lot of speakers especially those with
horn loaded or brighter tweeters like our klipsch heritage speakers or the sonus fiber lumina 2s
but don't get me wrong the audio lab's treble is still airy and very delicate but it doesn't
allow the speaker's tweeter to glare so it never becomes fatiguing or forward of the rest of the
amplifier's frequency response where i feel the audio lab is in a class all by itself soundstage
i have heard amps that allow speakers to exhibit a slightly emphasis on slightly wider or deeper
sound stage but few that manage to be as composed as the audio lab when paired with speakers known
to have an ability to cast a pretty impressive sound stage dynaudio and heko i'm talking about
you the audio lab didn't rain them in too much and proved to be far more nuanced compared to other
amplifiers where things can get a little a little bit fuzzy at the edges between the speakers forget
about it like with the midrange the audio lab's ability to resolve detail shines through in its
focus and separation dynamically the play is near perfect for me while i will admit there is a part
of me that likes a little bit more forward dynamic presence from time to time which explains why i'm
such a krell fan but when you get right down to it the 6000a sounds more natural in the way that it
builds starts and stops it has seemingly endless control over the source material and your speakers
that if you want to go big you can but in doing so it never loses its grip on the finer details
and the cues that go into making a crescendo sound and feel realistic versus flat and two-dimensional
you know like you you just cranked the volume for effect rather than the music building to a climax
on its own even when playing complex passages at volume the audio lab never lost its composure
as impressed as i am with the play's overall sonic performance i have to say the built-in
dac is pretty damn good it gave me cambridge audio dac magic 200m vibes though the audio
labs built in dac isn't quite as full featured as the 200m sonically the two are more than
a little comparable though i'm also not the world's biggest fan of dts play five though
in this instance i honestly didn't mind it the integration and communication between the app
and the audio lap was excellent lastly and this may be very important to some of you looking to
upgrade components down the line but the audio lab as a standalone preamp is awesome where i become a
little less enthusiastic is with the phono preamp it's good definitely good for phono preamp in this
class but like the phono preamp found inside the rotel a11 tribute the audio lab is prone to some
noise specifically ground loop hum i know this isn't wholly the fault of the amp nevertheless
i use the same turntables on every amp we test not to mention the same outlets cables etc and so far
only the rotel and audio lab have had intermittent noise issues with respect to their phono stages
it is correctable usually requiring some tweaking either your cables or plugging the turntable into
a different outlet than the amp but it is worth noting also those of you who like tone controls
not gonna find any inside the audio lab however you do get balance control so there's that
in terms of comparisons there are more than a few because the do it all integrated amp market is
just hotter than ever before i dive into those pro tip if you don't need streaming capabilities you
can pick up the audio lab 6000 a you know minus the play and save some money but compared to the
slightly cheaper yamaha as801 this isn't even a contest in my mind the audio lab comes out ahead
in every category save for maybe looks the yamaha is hard to beat when it comes to appearances
especially if you prefer a more vintage look that isn't to say that the 6008 is ugly i actually like
it's more mod or bauhaus style and even prefer it to the yamaha but that's just me while the
audio lab lacks hdmi connectivity i believe that sonically it is superior to that of the blue sound
power node possessing just a far more organic sound when compared to the blue sound's class
d architecture i still love the power node but forced me to make a decision
and i'm picking the audio lab for those of you wondering how the play compares to the rotel a11
tribute or musical fidelity m3si these either lack dax or music streaming capability which is
why i've left them off the list here if you don't need those features these are still great options
but the non-play audio lab is going to be as good and just way easier to get now for those of you
on a stricter budget you can have similar features with the emotiva ta1 and our go to budget champion
the cambridge audio axr 100 but if you want to know which one i like better it's the audio lab
but if you're shopping under a grand the cambridge still cannot be beat where the 6000a plague gets
really interesting for me is the fact that i think it's hands down better than the far
costlier and more powerful nad m33 when comparing sound quality and feature set i even prefer the
audio lab to my musical fidelity m5si though if you need more than 50 watts of power the m5si is
going to be more versatile in that regard in truth i think i preferred the audio lab to just about
anything i've heard this year with the exception of the decoy zen canner amps which really aren't
comparable because they have tubes and of course the teknix r1000 that retails for nearly 10
grand that's how good i believe the audio lab to be what more is there to say other than i think
it's pretty obvious that the 6000a play from audio lab is incredible i want to listen to it more than
just about anything else we've had in house if you know that you can get by with 50 to 75 watts
of total power and are looking for a streamlined easy to use solution that sounds beyond fabulous
i would urge you to consider this amp above nearly all others regardless of price yes i believe the
audio lab is that level of great so that's it that is now my review of the audio lab 6000a play but
now it's time to find out if christy liked it oh i love it everybody can relax honestly
i don't have a whole lot to add i'm really in alignment with how you felt about this particular
amplifier it truly is the unsuck it button of amplifiers like like how the musical fidelity
m8xi amplifier which is ridiculously expensive compared to this compared to this yeah and how
it totally saved the bowers and wilkins 702 signature review that we reviewed was last year
time has no meaning um this amp absolutely saved the new psb t600 synchrony tower speaker speakers
from getting absolutely incinerated in a review at least from me for you i would have ripped that
speaker two shreds had this had the play not come along like it it saved its life it did it
did coax a little bit of personality and fun out of that speaker i i will agree no understatement
that speaker was so boring until this thing came along and honestly i think you have to spend a lot
a lot more before you start seeing any major levels of improvement oh absolutely what is
the cost diminishing return something yeah we need to talk about this this amp it's i
think is the separation yeah you know the kind of the starting end point of where
this is about what you would spend to get tons of excellence but before you have to really move up
into for me i would say definitely the m5si which you can't get the m5si or m8 well both oh okay but
you really have to get you have to go up to the m5 for me before you really start to see more
more and more performance but you can't get the m5 it's not basically musical fidelity has not been
available all year yeah i don't know what's going on with that they claim they s my that my contact
at least swears that nothing's going on that there's like nothing's being discontinued but
it still hasn't been available so i don't know you know head tilt to that um now
obviously the m8 that i you know referenced that's like what a six thousand dollar amp
about five times more expensive um obviously you step up to that and it is there is a
noticeable improvement yeah i think also maybe going to the yamaha um as3200 which is like seven
thousand dollars yes that's going to give you yes i agree with you but you are going to just
with the m8xi you're not losing any functionality because that has built-in dax and stuff and it's
rather fantastic in that regard not to mention it's like a thousand watts when you really get
down to it but with the 3200 you will be giving up all of the digital connectivity and streaming
that the that the play has and so you're going to pay five six times as much to get arguably better
sonic performance with the 3200 and even the m8xi but you're going to give up functionality
getting there which is yeah yeah you're right and yes i was going to say that oh i'm sorry
uh but i already know the question that everybody is going to ask and they're going to want to know
how does this compare to our beloved name unity adam now i the the difference here is and i'm sure
the reason why you didn't mention it is because the name has hdmi capabilities where this doesn't
but because you mentioned the power node i think it's worth bringing up and i know people are going
to ask so yeah put them out of their misery you're not wrong in asking it's not included on this list
because like the cambridge audio evo what was it 150 and even 75 like the name and those products
really are like all inclusive systems in that they have streaming capability built in not to mention
hdmi things like that so like the m33 which i did include which i guess does include an hdmi
now that i think about it i should have included the name and the the name in terms of in terms
of functionality is still a really solid pick and i love the form factor and the design of it
and just like the name when the audio lab got here i didn't want to stop listening to it the name
unity adam and the audiolab 6000a play have to be among the more listenable class a b solid state
integrated almost do everything amplifiers i have ever heard i don't know which one i would pick
over the other obviously if i'm shopping and it's you know it's my money and it's i'm on a budget
16 1700 for the play is infinitely more compelling than 3200 for the name but you're not relying on
you can do a lot more with the name fully kitted out uh the one thing the name doesn't have that
the play does is that built-in phono preamp uh those of you that are phono uh turnta i should
shouldn't say phono preamp purists but turntable enthusiast you may have your own phono preamp
in which case the name's fine but if you if you don't want another device on your rack or
next to it then obviously the play is a great great option i purposely left it off because
i don't know which one i would pick in the end i love them both they sound completely different
they sound completely done okay i don't want to say completely different and someone's going to
be like i have the name and it's exactly they are different they're different i like them for
different reasons and either one of them if i was like i'm getting out of this game i'm calling it
a day throwing in the towel i would keep both of those for the long term probably over just about
everything else except for my deck wear those would be my three amps so far in our journey
name unity atom audio lab 6000 a in my deck where i'm good i'm good i can walk away i can walk away
so cool well i think that's going to make a lot of people happy i hope so i'm sorry at least no
i mean maybe not happy but i think it will help answer any lingering questions that they may have
after watching the review i mean i'm i think i really like it so that's it for us today that is
now our review of the audio lab uh 6000a play what did you guys think let us know down in the
comments below and while you're down there i have a question of the day for you what other
amplifier do you think stacks up to the audio lab let us know maybe you're going to turn me on to
something else like audio lab that i just really didn't have an opinion of i want to know because
you guys help drive a lot of what we do here so speaking of which speaking of driving what we
do here if you like this video give it a thumbs up like and subscribe and ring that bell so that
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dedicated to growing this community the right way so thank you for doing that uh follow me on
instagram at recovering audiophile that's it like we said we gotta we gotta watch some football man
so remember the only person who has to like the sound of your system is you
so happy listening everybody thank you so much for watching and we will see you on the next video bye